46 more civilians killed Tuesday, few wounded survive

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 12:27 GMT]Only a few of the wounded have survived injuries caused by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery shelling on 'safety zone', according to the civilian volunteers in Udaiyaarkaddu, who have been helping people to bury their dead. Only a few dared to send the remains to hospital mortuary. Very few of the wounded have survived, TamilNet correspondent said Wednesday.

Only 10% of the dead bodies of 300 civilians were brought to hospital on Monday. 90% of the killed were buried where they were killed.

Medical staff told TamilNet correspondent that they were only able to verify that 21 more civilians were killed on Tuesday. The makeshift hospital at Udaiyaarkaddu, which had gone empty for much of the needed medicines and was even struggling to bandage the wounds, attended only 20 wounded on Tuesday.

There has been no sign of external medical teams or assistance to the hospital, despite the repeated calls by the offices of the Regional Directors of Health Services.

Reports also said not only the ICRC staff, but also medical staff had to flee their posts following the indiscriminate attack on the 'saftey zone'.

TamilNet correspondent witnessed that 4 vehicles, that were hit by the SLA-fired shells 1 km away from Chuthanthirapuram junction within the 'saftey zone' were on fire as civilians inside were struggling to escape. The victims had succumbed to fire and smoke inhalation.